A Frisco-based real estate company is requesting that Dare County remove language in an ordinance that restricts building multifamily dwellings in the half-mile buffer around the 1,007-acre Buxton Woods Reserve on Hatteras Island.
A public hearing on the proposed text amendment is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday as part of the county board of commissioners’ regular meeting taking place in the commissioners meeting room, 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive, Manteo.
Supporter Spotlight
Related: Protective zone around Buxton Woods may be unenforceable
The 1,868-acre special environmental district, or SED, called the “zone of influence” in the ordinance is solely in Buxton and Frisco. The district surrounds the Cape Hatteras well fields within the state-protected Buxton Woods Reserve. The Cape Hatteras well fields help supply portions of Hatteras Island with potable water.
The applicant, OBX Timber Trail LLC, is requesting the county “remove the Zone of Influence Dwelling Density Limitation for multi-family development, townhouses, or condominium projects located within ½ mile of any SED-1 zoning district boundary,” from the ordinance, according to the public hearing notice.
Coastal Resources Commission, or CRC, adopted rules in 1977 to establish an area of environmental concern, or AEC, around the Cape Hatteras well fields. The AEC boundaries measured 500 feet on either side of the centerline of the existing well field, according to county documents.
The commission in 1987 amended the rules to expand the boundaries from 500 feet to 1,000 feet on either side of existing and future well fields. The commission also established standards for development and the use of groundwater absorption sewage treatment systems within the boundary of the area of environmental concern, and required development proposals to obtain a Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, permit.
Supporter Spotlight
The county adopted the special environmental district language in 1988 to create “additional development standards to further protect lands internal to and outside of the CRC’s AEC to protect the groundwater of the well field and protect the natural resource that is the Buxton Woods.”
Petitioners argue in their zoning amendment application that “Dare County along with the rest of the nation has a housing crisis and limitations to the number of single-family dwelling units within ½ mile of the SED-1 zoning district effectively eliminates the number of housing configurations and density that can be constructed in all of Buxton and most of Frisco.”
Petitioners also argue that the zoning district “targets residential uses but ignores other uses with much higher intensities such as Motels/Hotels, RV Parks, Restaurants, Marinas and boat works, etc.”
The county planning board on April 1 unanimously recommended to remove the zone of influence language in its entirety based on consistency with the Dare County Land Use Plan. County staff requested that the board “act favorably on the proposed amendment as recommended by the Planning Board” following the public hearing, according to agenda documents.
Any person may comment at the hearing or submit written comments by mail to the Dare County Board of Commissioners at P.O. Box 1000 Manteo, NC 27954 or email to dcboc@darenc.gov or noah.gillam@darenc.gov.
